Location from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Dead City — once the beautiful Minas Ithil, Tower of the Moon, now a corrupted fortress of the Nazgûl that glows with a sickly corpse-light.
Minas Morgul is wrong in a way that bypasses the intellect and strikes directly at the nerves. The city looks like it should be beautiful — the stonework is elegant, the proportions graceful, the setting dramatic — but everything has been subtly corrupted. The light it emits is the light of decay, not illumination. The silence is not peace but the held breath before a scream. The pale flowers along the Morgul road are lovely to look at and their scent brings confusion and despair. The Nazgûl dwell here, and their presence has infected the stone itself. The air is cold regardless of season, and breathing it feels like inhaling dread. The Morgulduin — the stream flowing from the city — is toxic, its water causing sickness and hallucination. Approaching the city requires crossing a bridge watched by carved sentinels that seem to track movement. The road from here leads up to Cirith Ungol and the secret pass into Mordor. Sauron deliberately positioned his most terrifying servants here, facing Gondor, as a constant psychological weapon.
A city of pale stone built into a narrow valley in the Mountains of Shadow, its architecture a twisted mirror of Minas Tirith. White walls and towers that now glow with a faint, ghastly luminescence — greenish-white, like phosphorescent decay. The bridge across the Morgulduin is carved with corrupted figures. The tower at its height leans slightly, as if the stone itself is sick. Pale flowers grow along the road — beautiful and poisonous.
Also known as: Minas Morgul, the Dead City, Minas Ithil, Tower of Sorcery, Tower of the Moon